les miserables (the movie film; not the concert film or book. Dutch angles! Americans! Australians!)

this fucking owned

― k3vin k

http://img.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/kevin-keller2__oPt.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/531902_10151404089977783_1793876027_n.jpg

Denby opens a can of whupass, has rehab suggestions for you Les Shizzies:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/theres-still-hope-for-people-who-love-les-miserables.html

Wherever Valjean goes, Javert shows up; he’s everywhere at once, like the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” who was at least intended to be a fanciful creation.

Would like to shake the hands of whoever stuck a "Based on true events" on Denby's copy of the novel.

this was much, much better than i'd hoped for. crowe did struggle for air but tbh javert's just an awful part, even sung well, it's just continuous tuba notes going nowhere.

Hathaway, jackman and guy playing marius were all great. Bring him home was terrible tho, disappointing considering he did well with everything else asked of him.

Cosette sang like a cartoon mouse. HBC's singing was awful.

Whole thing looked amazing.

the songs are all really boring and awful songs even for a broadway-ish joint except for "i dreamed a dream" which is amazing, it's weird.

well i love 'bring him home' and the one or two ensembles bringing all the motifs together can be great too (lacked something in this tho, maybe too much focus on individual vocals i think)

Wait, you liked it but you hate the music? Not a dig, just wondering how you can enjoy a completely sung-thru musical and hate all of teh songs!

the songs are all really boring and awful songs even for a broadway-ish joint except for "i dreamed a dream" which is amazing, it's weird.

I agree that "Dream" outshines everything else, but "On my own", "Master of the house", "Do you hear the people sing?", "Castle on a cloud", and to a lesser extent "Look down", "Bring him home" and "Empty Chairs" are all good-to-great megamusical fare

And "Red & Black" is the best example of megamusical recitative that I've heard

But yeah, then there are five or six other songs that suuuuck

Re: "bad singing" I liked it, actually, every actor had their own kind of not-great singing style and it a) contributed to the snot and shit stylization of the whole thing, and b) it made every singer so individual and different. I actually was left the least moved by the "pro" stage singer (Eponine) just 'cause she seemed so out of place in an otherwise filthy and fucked up production

Like when Amanda Seyfried started singing and she sounds like a theremin I was like of course girl sounds like a theremin

Biggest head scratcher I've read about is that Sacha Baron Cohen sings/acts with an exaggerated French accent, despite the fact that the no one else in the movie has a French accent, even though it is set in France.

Because Thernardier is a racist, obv

fortunately I've only met one gay who knows more than one verse of "It Was All A Dream, I Used to Read Word Up Magazine" or whatever

I was so upset by the banality of the music that I felt like hiring a hall and staging a nationalist rally.

or David Denby's Dream Life.

About a month ago, my neighbor's elderly father from the middle of nowhere Texas came to visit, with one goal being a chance to see "Les Mis" on stage, which he's wanted to see for 25 years. Found it so weird that in 2013 there were still people anywhere who have really wanted to see this musical for 25 years. I can't remember the last time I saw someone in a "Les Mis" sweatshirt.

How long until the CGI-enhanced "Cats" movie?

See I'm just amazed that Les Miz is getting all this crap piled on it, like, are these people aware of the hundreds of other horrible "musicals" that exist?

Yea but none of them are currently films atm

And none of them are a) the scientifically-proven best musical of all time, brought to you now in singovision b) the musical in the thread title.

Wait, you liked it but you hate the music? Not a dig, just wondering how you can enjoy a completely sung-thru musical and hate all of teh songs!

― NINO CARTER, Saturday, January 12, 2013 9:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah there were a couple other good ones i was exaggerating a little

No I know I was talking about the sweeping cultural indictments that I've read elsewhere (some of which are linked to from this thread)

That said I didn't pay any attention to any drubbing that Schumacher's Phantom received so nm

Speaking as someone who runs in musical theater circles, truuuuuuuuuuuust me, other musicals get eviscerated much, much worse than this incarnation of Les Mis. Theater aficianados can be a tough crowd to win over (even those favorites like Rent and such win over only a certain, youthful faction of the community).

i never realised how much south park the movie ripped on this

Ah so, Nino, I don't run in musical theatre circles I just end up seeing these 1975-present megathings with sentimental family members and get soooo frustrated with 95% of them.

Re: South Park. Les Mis features so many cliches of the genre that any send-up of megamusicals is gonna appear to be a direct parody. Kind of like the way people thought Mars Attacks was a parody of specifically Independence Day

..well that's just "the world didn't exist before 1985."

(see also "ILX action film poll")

"goddamn kids"

no, ignoramii

nice hypercorrection there morbs

vigilance is my watchword!

i dig the heck outta 'do you hear the people sing' thats some rousing ass shit. a lot of the gooey numbers were dull to me, but maybe it would've helped to have heard some of them before

"I Dreamed a Dream" the standout number at the time, but the thing that's stuck in my head is the "daa daaa daaaa daa daaa daaa daaaa-ah" motif that everyone sings a thousand times, I don't even remember any of the words they sang just dahha hdhdhh dhdhdhdhhdhdh

idk if all that's for me, but if the whole 'la resistance' sequence from SP The Movie isn't a direct & obvious LM ref then i dunno what. If every musical before 1985 (if there even were any? Idk, there prob was, prob books and movies and music too, tho it seems strange to think it.) has a french guy leading a resistance through song while threading the motifs of most of the previous songs together i wouldn't know, I'm only 32, we poor creatures can't be expected to do anything but grasp for the familiar in the comforting patterns of our limited youthly experience and hope for the kindness of our betters and elders to guide us.

idk if all that's for me, but if the whole 'la resistance' sequence from SP The Movie isn't a direct & obvious LM ref then i dunno what

haha yes that is exactly what that us

The whole idea of an ensemble number that weaves together a ton of different themes from the show didn't start with Les Miz though; there's a huge number in West Side Story that serves the same function and interpolates "Tonight" with a new theme that pushes forward some narrative strands right before the rumble.

is this the point in the thread where I can rant and rave about how much I hate the film of West Side Story

because I can go on about that for some time

I thought I loved the movie until I saw it in high school; it really can't compare to the stage show.

The movie is fine except for that it ruins all the slow songs by taking them at thrice the speed. Literally the worst version of "Somewhere" ever.

I also think it works better to switch "Cool" and "Krupke."

don't think i've seen the movie, but i saw the most recent National tour twice and loved it

djp- don't you start

The movie is fine except for that it ruins all the slow songs by taking them at thrice the speed. Literally the worst version of "Somewhere" ever.

― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Saturday, January 12, 2013 11:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also turns that song into a sex duet instead of sung by an anonymous girl during the Nightmare

In fairness (now that I've seen it), the thing with Thenardier's accent appears to be that it's HBC-matching English at base, he just throws on a French accent when playing the innkeeper to his guests - and a dreadful Irish one for the con before the mugging.

The restaging of Mme Thenardier's coda to Master of the House, as one more con, is kind of interesting, though I like the vanilla interpretation that they're bound together in hate.

The reworking of Beggars at the Dance blows though, that is one of the classic "No, fuck you and your morals, we win" statements, and taking it away cheapens the last scene.

There was some other stuff in there, but I'm all about the Thenardiers.

Also have we not had this yet?
http://25.media.tumblr.com/aa97cfd1ace95c205a2b86e5388becb9/tumblr_mfzlzozQRj1qf0u9eo1_500.png

Also of course "I Dreamed a Dream" benefits from not being all "is this a conversation, are we talking over each other, are we switching from talking to singing and back", and is just sit yourself down sonny, I'm going to Sing you a Song.

Tom Hooper hates people's eyes because he makes shit that looks fucking terrible and he knows nothing about anything.

"I Dreamed a Dream" was amazing though. Worth the price of admission, I'd say.

Denby such a hack I wish I liked this more.

Just watched this and fuck it, I goddamn loved it. Vocal wise, Hathaway is fucking great, all three of the revolutionary hero dudes are as well, both kid actors obv total pros, Amanda seyfried (who outside of mean girls I fucking hate) was shockingly good, Russell Crowe way better than he is getting credit for. Big surprise is that Hugh Jackman pretty much shits the bed throughout - bad constant vibrato, mushy nowhere delivery. As a movie? Eh it's shiny in all the right parts. Master of the house is half-assed at best.

As much as I dug Hathaway, idg the supporting actress nod at all, it's kind of "hi I'm here, hi I am downtrodden, lemme sing like a badass, whoops I'm dead". Give her a Grammy or some shit, Oscar gtfo. And i like her, but wtf.

How do you feel about the show in general? I've stayed away because I really really hate the show

Thought jackman did a better than passable job tbh, with notable winces. Hathaway got oscar for 'dreamed a dream' and if you can show me a more deserving 3 mins from a supporting actress last year then i'm listening